Arch support



Dec. 3, 1924. I 1,520,055

L. LOBEL ARCH SUPPORT Filed March 10, 1922 awuentoz Patented Dec. 23, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LEON LOBEL, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR 'IO DR. LOBELS SPRING ARCH SUPPORT 00., INC., OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

ARCH SUPPORT.

Application filed March 10, 1922. Serial No. 542,538.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LEON LOBEL, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Arch Supports, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an improvement in devices used for supporting the arches of the feet, and has for its object to provide a devicewhich will be simple in construction, light in weight; which may be worn with comfort at all times and which will be of an elastic or resilient constructionso that it may be worn without inconvenience and absolute comfort and performs its cure without effort or pain on the part of the user;

A further object of this invention is to provide a means for building up or con structing an arch support to suit the foot in connection with which it is to be used. It has been found very'difiicult to apply the ordinary form of arch support to feet of varying forms and possessing different defects. An arch support made in accordance with my invention may be constructed to remedy all defects of the feet as may be required by individual'users.

With these and other objects in View, I,

have devised the particular arrangement of parts hereinafter set forth and more par ticularly pointed out in the claim appended hereto.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawing forming a part hereof in which- Figure 1 is a plan view of an'arch support made in accordance with my invention';

Figure 2 is a side elevation of the same,v

material such as leather of substantial thickness and is shaped to fit the foot. Its centrol portion is raised or upwardly arched as at 2 to form the arch supporting portion of the 'device.

At 3 is a spring which is placed directly below the arched portion 2 of the body 1, which spring is supported upon a. plate 4. Through 1 this arrangement a resilient supporting means for the arch of the foot is provided.

Some persons tend to walk on one side of the foot and to remedy this defect the heel portion 5 of the arch support may be built up or thic ened on one side or the other. This is 'done by splitting the body portion 1 inwardly from the side of the support which is to be raised or thickened thus dividing the body portion 1 into the two outerfaces 6 and? between which an insert of a soft yielding cellular material is secured. For this purpose I have found soft sponge rubber particularly useful.

This insert which is disclosed at 8 is preferably made thicker at its outer edge than at its inner end sothat the top face 6 of the support is substantially smooth and even and can in no way inconvenience the wearer. It will be understood that any portion of the arch support can be built up in this manner to correct different defects in the feet.

One of the common defects of the human foot is displacement of the metatarsal bones. To hold the same in proper position without causing inconvenience or pain, I provide the body portion 1 with a cushion 9 located and jacent the front end of the device and in position to profperly act u on the foot. This cushion is ormed by pa ding the body portion 1 between its two outer faces 9 with material similar to that disclosed at 8. This insert, which is indicated at 11 may be placed in position by slitting the front edge 10 of the body portion, thereafter securing that edge by means of the line of stitches 12. This provides a cushion of ex-' treme resiliency yet of suflicient firmness to hold the metatarsal bones effectively in osition. The cushion 9 is entirely surroun ed by portions of the body portion 1. The foregoing indicates two methods of building up vportions of the support to correct common defects of; the foot.

I no

It will be understood that my invention is not to be limited to the exact embodiment shown but is broad enough to cover all structures coming Within the scope of the annexed claim.

What I claim is:

An article of the class described comprising a supporting strip of flexible material of a single thickness, said strip being upwardly arched at a substantially central point, a spring below said upwardly arched portion for resiliently supporting the same, said strip being inwardly split from one of its sides at its rear end with a wedgeshaped section of a soft, cellular and yieldneeones ing material held between the split portions of the strip to elevate the heel por tion of the strip at one side, gsaid strip also being split inwardly at its front edge, and a rounded cushion member adjacent the front edge of said strip forming an upward- 1y extending resilient protuberance on the upper face of the strip, said cushion member being formed by the insertion of a soft yielding and cellular section of rubber bee tween the split portions of the strip ad.- jacent the front edge of the same.

Signed at the city, county, and State of New York this 8 day of March, 1922.

LEON LOBEL. 

